


Nothing we do has ever been easy

by stjarna



Series: Season 4 - Coda Challenge [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: All mistakes are my own, Coda, Coda Challenge @The FitzSimmons Network, Episode: s04e03 Uprising (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), F/M, Post-Episode: s04e03 Uprising (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Tumblr: thefitzsimmonsnetwork, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-22 03:25:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8270783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stjarna/pseuds/stjarna
Summary: Written for The "Season 4, Episode 3 - Uprising" Coda Challenge organized by The Fitzsimmons Network on Tumblr.Summary in the Notes section, as additional spoiler protection for those who have not seen the episode.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Self-imposed writing prompts:  
> \- Before Fitzsimmons go on their separate missions  
> \- Post-episode

She scrambles to throw a few pieces of her clothes into a bag. “We have less than 24 hours, Fitz. What if I can’t do it? What if I lose her? I made a promise to our team. And I’m failing. Again!”

His hand reaches for hers, forcing her to interrupt her packing efforts. “Jemma, stop! You’re not failing. You haven’t even started yet. You and Holden will figure something out. The two of you together know the human brain better than anyone else.”

She looks into his blue eyes and sighs, before nodding silently.

She cups his cheek with her hand, thoughtfully caressing it with her thumb. “You be careful!”

“It’ll be quick and easy,” he tries to reassure her, grabbing her hand and planting a gentle kiss on her palm. “I have everything I need to locate and disable the EMP.”

“Nothing we do has ever been easy, Fitz.” And in her mind she’s not just talking about their jobs.

“I’ll be careful,” her promises. “And you be too!”

She smiles, tears in her eyes.

Something about the past few days, May getting infected, her condition rapidly worsening, Fitz’s report indicating that there were more ‘ghosts,’ that one of them almost touched him, the strange flaming skull that came to his rescue. All these events have been gnawing on her. Her confidence and strength seem to be dwindling, a strength that she needs so desperately now. She can't bear the thought of losing anyone else, and yet it seems as if one by one the people she loved and cared about were taken from her.

“You come back to me!” she whispers, and tries to stare into his soul with pleading eyes.

He tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and allows his hand to linger on her neck, caressing the soft skin behind her ear. “I did last time, didn’t I?”

She allows herself to bathe in the blue of his eyes for a moment, to absorb the serenity they emanate.

Both of them need to rush to their tasks. Both of them need to save others. Prevent chaos. Prevent death. But for a few seconds they allow themselves to only have eyes for each other. And for a few seconds more they allow their lips to meet, their tongues to dance.

Both smile at each other, before heading out the door of their shared quarters.

* * *

After the press conference and initial euphoria about S.H.I.E.L.D. coming out of the shadows has passed, Fitz quietly sneaks to a corner of the common room and pulls out his phone.

“Fitz.” Her voice is barely above a whisper, and yet he thinks he can see her smiling.

“Hey,” he says quietly, smiling himself at the sound of her voice.

“Hey,” she exhales.

“You did it,” he comments, his pride for her swelling in his chest.

“It was Holden to be honest,” she replies. “His idea and his power source.”

“And whose idea was it to get him involved?”

“I suppose.”

“You did it, Jemma. Try to relax. For whatever half-second the world is giving us to relax.”

“That energy source you and Holden perfected… and what it’s powering…”

He holds his breath, realizing that she must have figured out everything.

“It’s really quite something, Fitz. Impressive.”

He clenches his jaw before he speaks. “Jemma… I wanted to…”

“You couldn’t. I know,” she replies reassuringly. “I would have had to tell Director Mace.”

She is quiet for a moment. “That’s what it was, wasn’t it? The other day?”

“What?”

“[Do you wanna watch something?](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8112772)” she reminds him.

“Yeah,” he admits, “that was it.”

He exhales sharply. “You will have to tell him now.”

“Well, he told me to do whatever I needed to save May. He might not be opposed to this kind of tech. I’ll make it a good sales pitch.”

“Thank you, Jemma,” Fitz says. “Aida could be very valuable for S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“I agree,” she replies. “But enough of that, alright. _You_ certainly saved the day as well. Judging by the power coming back in all cities that were affected.”

“Team effort,” he counters, remembering asking Mack, Coulson, and Elena to shout out the compass readings, and Elena disarming the guards around the EMP. “Seems to be a common thread in S.H.I.E.L.D. Together we triumph, divided we fall… or however our photogenic, TV-cameras-loving Director phrased it.”

“He’s not wrong about that.”

“No he’s not,” Fitz admits, “But he’s also not the first one to come up with that idea.”

“Well, I’m just glad it all seems to have worked out somehow.”

“You know,” he says, a smile flashing across his face, “I think you would have loved the mission. Back to basics. I built cork compasses! Had to calculate everything without any tech. Brought me back to when I was a kid. Coulson called me _Slide rule_.”

He hears her chuckle, before the line goes quiet for a moment.

“I miss you, Jemma,” he admits quietly, his fingers absentmindedly gliding over the red brick wall. “I wish you could have been there.”

She sighs audibly. “I miss you, too, Fitz. We seem to have so little time for each other lately.”

“Maybe it’ll be different… now that S.H.I.E.L.D. is out in the open again. Now that we have more allies again.”

“But also new enemies,” she says, sadness and fear in her voice.

He feels his eyes welling up, wishing he could hold her right now.

“Jemma,” he whispers.

“Yes.”

“Come back to me.”

The noise he hears on the other end of the line is somewhere between laughing and sobbing.

“I will,” she replies after a moment of silence. Her voice is steadier when she continues to speak. “We’re heading back to the base early tomorrow. Our patient is _anything_ but patient.”

He smiles. “Tomorrow can’t come early enough.”

“Good night, Fitz,” she says, her voice joyful and happy.

“Good night.”

He is about to hang up when he hears her again.

“And Fitz.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe when I come back, you can show me your slide rule. It’s been too long since I’ve seen it.”

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Fitz hears that she has hung up, but is unable to move the phone away from his left ear. His mouth is slightly open. He reaches for his right earlobe, which seems to be on fire, and nervously looks around himself, convinced that somehow everyone in the room had overheard what she had just said.

His eyes catch Coulson, who is leaning against the back of the couch, his arms crossed in front of him, talking to Mack.

 _Oh bloody hell_ , he thinks, _please let Coulson never refer to me as Slide rule ever again or I'll be the one with the flaming skull._

**Author's Note:**

> I realize the way the episode was written doesn't quite tell us if Jemma found out about Aida or not, but I just liked the idea that she either found out or figured it out, and that it will all be okay :)


End file.
